DAMASCUS, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — The owner of al-Rai TV channel, which had been used by former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as the sole platform to declare his stances, Saturday expressed concerns that Libya may plunge into chaos, and criticized the brutal way Gaddafi was killed.
Mishan al-Jbouri, a Sunni Iraqi lawmaker who has been residing in Syria since 1996 and a close friend of Gaddafi’s family, told Xinhua in an interview that the family of Gaddafi could instigate resistance against the NATO and the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC).
He said the family of Gaddafi is demanding an inquiry into his death, as well as the quick burial of his body in his Mediterranean coastal hometown of Sirte, the last bastion of resistance against the NATO-backed NTC fighters.
“Although I’m a close friend of Gaddifi’s family, I wasn’t a fan of Gaddafi himself,” Jbouri said, “However, the way he was killed was gruesome.”
On Friday, the United Nations human rights body called for an investigation into how Gaddafi was killed Thursday, after satellite TV channels broadcast a footage of Gaddafi being captured wounded but alive with blood stains on the face and then pushed by fighters onto a truck, and another video later emerged showing Gaddafi’s body on the lap of a fighter with a bullet hole in his forehead.
Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya for 42 years, had governed the country with an outdated mentality, Jbouri said, suggesting that his tyranny and over self-confidence led himself to this end.
“Unfortunately, Gaddafi made Libya at some point related to his character and desires,” Jbouri said.
As for Gaddafi’s family, Jbouri revealed that the family is to some extent divided between those who want to reconcile with the NTC and others who are determined to carry on with resistance against NATO and instigate Libyan people to resist against the NTC.
Asked whether Algeria, which hosts some of Gaddafi’s family members, would turn in the family to the NTC, Jbouri said that after the whole world saw the ugly way Gaddafi was killed, no country would risk handing the rest of the family to the NTC.
Jbouri said the NTC is divided, citing their disputes about the location where they would declare “total liberation of Libya.”
Earlier reports said the NTC would announce the liberation of Libya on Saturday in the capital Tripoli. But the NTC officials said Saturday that the announcement would be made on Sunday in Benghazi, the eastern city that became the hub of the Libyan revolt. There were no immediate comments on what prompted the delay or the change of location.
Jbouri voiced concerns that Libya may plunge into chaos and become another Somalia.
He said he backed a “peaceful change” in Libya, but “can’t be with the NATO or any foreign invasion.”
He mentioned his support of Iraqi resistance against U.S. occupation, saying “at first I believed that the (occupiers) are really bringing democracy with them, but it turned out to be a big lie.”
“Since I was against occupation in Iraq, I can’t be alongside the NATO in Libya,” he added.
Jbouri, 57, founded al-Rai TV station in 2007, which is blacklisted by the U.S. for allegedly backing terrorist acts and calling for resistance against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
He said the channel had supported protests in Egypt, which angered Gaddafi. However, the Libyan leader later changed his mind and contacted Jbouri.
